GREENCASTLE, Ind. (Feb. 26, 2016) – In a match that lasted seven and a half hours, the No. 12 ranked Sewanee women's tennis team opened the prestigious ITA National Indoor Championships with a 5-4 win over No. 9 MIT on the campus of DePauw University.
Sewanee handed the Engineers their first loss this season as the No. 3 seed dropped to 10-1 while the No. 6 seeded Tigers are now 5-2.
Sewanee opened the long match with a key 8-4 win at No. 1 doubles. The Tiger duo of Lindsey Liles and Clementina Davila earned the victory against Elysa Kohrs and Krystal Lai. After MIT's No. 2 team of Kelly Zhu and Dora Tzeng tied the score at 1-1 with an 8-5 victory against Mary Jane McCaghren and Haley Tucker, Sewanee's Annie Veron and Maggie Crumbliss topped Wendi Kong and Rena Liu, 9-7.
MIT opened singles with a 6-1, 7-6 victory by Zhu at No. 2 over Davila. The Engineers took their first lead of the match at 3-2 as Tzeng kept winning by outlasting Christina Merchant at No. 3 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
MIT made the score 4-2 as Elysa Kohrs finally defeated Liles at No. 1 6-4, 6-7, 7-5 in a match that went back-and-forth.
With their back against the wall, Sewanee responded. The Tigers pulled to within one, 4-3, as Crumbliss sweep Liu in straight sets 6-0, 6-0. Childress then dominated Kong at No. 4 after a close first set 7-6, 6-2 to knotted the score at 4-4.
With all eyes on No. 6 singles, Krystal Lai and Veron battled point-for-point. After Lai won the first set at 6-4, the Tiger senior rallied back. Again playing point after point, Veron finally broke Lai and tied the score with a 7-5 second-set win. Finally, as the final set played out, Veron took the first game before Lai retired.
Friday marked the second straight season Sewanee has won a match at the ITA Indoors. The Tigers topped host DePauw a year ago, 5-4.
The Tiger will now take on No. 7 Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday.
For more information on Sewanee Athletics, please visit www.SewaneeTigers.com. You can also check the Tigers out on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr.
